Scottish Executive

Asthma

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to establish a national strategy for asthma and what steps it is taking to train more asthma nurse specialists.

Malcolm Chisholm: The Executive has no plans for a national strategy for asthma. I have, however, arranged to meet representatives of the National Asthma Campaign Scotland, the British Lung Foundation and Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland to discuss services for people with asthma and other respiratory conditions.

  Specialist training for nurses in asthma is available in Scotland, for example, through the National Asthma and Respiratory Training Centre which provides courses based at Stirling Management Centre. It is the responsibility of the NHS trusts to identify and meet their respective training needs for staff.

Audiology

Mr Kenneth Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to introduce a three-yearly review for all patients fitted with NHS hearing aids.

Mr Kenneth Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to modernise NHS audiology departments.

Mr Kenneth Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost would be of introducing a programme, modelled on the modernisation of audiology services in the NHS in Wales, in order to make digital hearing aids more widely available to patients in Scotland.

Mr Kenneth Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will introduce a costed programme to make digital hearing aids more widely available to patients, similar to the action being taken by the National Assembly for Wales.

Mrs Mary Mulligan: In answer to this question and also to questions S1W-22824, S1W-22826 and S1W-22827 I would advise that, in response to concerns about access to audiology services and quality of treatment, Good Practice Guidance on Adult Hearing and Fitting Services was issued to NHSScotland in March 2001.

  The Executive has commissioned a wide-ranging review of audiology services, which is due to report in the autumn. The review group report will provide costs and recommendations to NHSScotland on how to address any shortfalls identified in the service provided. The review will also report on progress on implementation of the Good Practice Guide.

  The Good Practice Guidance recommends that all patients should be reviewed at least every three years as part of a process of continuing care. It also recommended that digital aids should be supplied whenever clinical judgement indicates that they would provide benefit to the patient involved that would not be provided by other types of hearing aid.

  Digital hearing aids are included within the wide range of hearing aids available on the central contract for NHSScotland.

Audiology

Mr Kenneth Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to recruit and train more audiologists for the NHS.

Mrs Mary Mulligan: It is for NHS boards and trusts to assess and provide for local needs and to determine staff numbers and the design of teams required for effective delivery of service outcomes. The number of higher specialist training posts available in Scotland is regularly adjusted to meet the projected number of new consultants needed to meet known and anticipated turnover and local service developments.

  To help inform local decisions in this area, the Executive has initiated a wide-ranging review of audiology services, which is expected to report in autumn 2002. The review group will report initial recommendations on staffing, training and skill-mix by the end of March 2002.

Caledonian MacBrayne

Mr Duncan Hamilton (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-21446 by Lewis Macdonald on 21 January 2002, in what month it expects to be able to report on the consultation exercise on Caledonian MacBrayne services.

Lewis Macdonald: We plan to publish the draft service specification for consultation in the spring. Following consideration of responses, final decisions will be made later this year. The issues are complex and the timescales will depend on consideration of detailed points raised.

Digital Hearing Aids

Andrew Wilson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many persons within the Lanarkshire Health Board area have been assessed as requiring a digital hearing aid and how many persons were provided with such a hearing aid in each of the past three years, broken down by how many were supplied free of charge by the NHS and how many were provided by the NHS at a monetary cost to the patient.

Andrew Wilson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many persons within the Cumbernauld and Kilsyth constituency area have been assessed as requiring a digital hearing aid and how many persons were provided with such a hearing aid in each of the last three years, broken down by how many were supplied free of charge by the NHS and how many were provided by the NHS at a monetary cost to the patient.

Andrew Wilson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many persons within the Motherwell and Wishaw constituency area have been assessed as requiring a digital hearing aid and how many persons were provided with such a hearing aid in each of the last three years, broken down by how many were supplied free of charge by the NHS and how many were provided by the NHS at a monetary cost to the patient.

Andrew Wilson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many persons within the Lanarkshire Health Board area have been assessed as requiring two digital hearing aids and how many persons were provided with two such hearing aids in each of the last three years, broken down by how many were supplied free of charge by the NHS and how many were provided by the NHS at a monetary cost to the patient

Andrew Wilson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether a person requiring two digital hearing aids will have both aids provided at the same time and free of charge by the NHS and what the reasons are for the position on this matter.

Mrs Mary Mulligan: Digital hearing aids provided by NHSScotland are provided free of charge. Each individual case must be a matter for the clinical judgement of the clinicians concerned as is the question of whether a person requiring two digital aids will have both provided at the same time.

  The additional information requested in this question and questions S1W-22851, S1W-22852, S1W-22853 and S1W-22854 is not held centrally. The questions should be directed to the appropriate NHS boards and NHS trusts.

Education

Scott Barrie (Dunfermline West) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive when it plans to publish its response to the report of the Review of Educational Psychologists.

Cathy Jamieson: We are currently considering the report of the Review of Educational Psychology Services which will be published by the end of February. Our response will follow in due course.

Education

Fiona McLeod (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1O-4555 by Nicol Stephen on 31 January 2002, how the pay and conditions of school librarians will be reviewed, given that they are not represented on the Scottish negotiating committee for teachers.

Nicol Stephen: I have looked into this issue further. It has been explained to me that the pay and conditions of service of school librarians has never been part of the negotiations held on behalf of the teaching and related professions. The pay and conditions of service of school librarians is a matter for the Scottish Joint Council (SJC) for Local Government Employees. The Scottish Executive is not part of the SJC.

Education

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-20422 by Nicol Stephen on 11 December 2001, whether it will take urgent action in order to bring forward the publication of the Review of Educational Psychologists; on what date the report will be published; whether it is impossible for the negotiating group representing educational psychologists to negotiate salary levels until this report has been made available to them; what its position is on the role and pay and conditions of educational psychologists compared with those of teachers, and what steps it will take in order to ensure that no discrimination against educational psychologists arises.

Cathy Jamieson: The Scottish Executive will publish the report of the Review of Educational Psychology Services by the end of February.

  The Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) is currently considering the issue of pay and conditions for educational psychologists.

Education

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will detail any independent research on the treatment by local authorities of home educating families that contributed to the drafting of its Draft Guidance on the Circumstances in which Parents may Choose to Educate their Children At Home .

Nicol Stephen: In preparing the Draft Guidance on the Circumstances in which Parents may Choose to Educate their Children At Home , the Scottish Executive considered the Scottish Consumer Council Homeworks report on the treatment of home educating families by local authorities. Many of the issues raised in the report have been addressed in the draft guidance, which has been issued for consultation until 29 March 2002.

Education

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish any internal research on the treatment by local authorities of home educating families that contributed to the drafting of its Draft Guidance on the Circumstances in which Parents may Choose to Educate their Children At Home .

Nicol Stephen: The outcome of the Scottish Executive's internal research into this issue has already been published in the form of the Draft Guidance on the Circumstances in which Parents may Choose to Educate their Children At Home , issued for consultation until 29 March 2002. In preparing the draft guidance, officials sought and considered the views of local authorities and representatives of home education organisations on the issues they wished to be addressed in the guidance. The Scottish Consumer Council research into the treatment of home educating families by local authorities, published in their Homeworks report, was also given careful consideration together with a range of other documents provided by Education Otherwise.

Environment

Mr John Home Robertson (East Lothian) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what its estimate is of the (a) volume and (b) weight of litter and fly-tipped rubbish that is deposited on public land annually and what proportion of such material is removed by public authorities.

Ross Finnie: This information is not held centrally, but the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is in the process of collecting similar information from local authorities as part of its new waste data survey. The information should be available from SEPA towards the end of this year.

Environment

Mr John Home Robertson (East Lothian) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual cost to public funds is of collecting and disposing of litter and fly-tipped rubbish.

Ross Finnie: The information requested is not held centrally. Local authorities report expenditure to the Executive on various services within their cleansing budget. These are waste management, waste disposal, street cleaning and recycling. expenditure on litter and fly-tipping may come under any of the first three headings and is not disaggregated.

Environment

Mr John Home Robertson (East Lothian) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many prosecutions there were for litter and fly-tipping offences in each of the last four years.

Ross Finnie: The available information is given in the following table. Data for 2001 is not yet available.

  Persons proceeded against in Scottish Courts where the main offence was a litter offence, 1997-2000:

  


1997 
  

1998 
  

1999 
  

2000 
  



50 
  

41 
  

30 
  

14

Environment

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what financial assistance (a) is currently available and (b) will be available in 2002-03 to all farmers whose operations are affected by nitrate vulnerable zone designations.

Ross Finnie: None. There is no specific financial assistance available at present but carrying out conservation management proposals which meet the objectives of a nitrate vulnerable zone is one of the criteria used to prioritise applications to join the Rural Stewardship Scheme. As regards 2002-03, regulations are being prepared to allow for a Capital Grant Scheme to be introduced. The proposed scheme would assist farmers in nitrate vulnerable zones by offering grant at a rate of 40% towards the building or upgrading of storage facilities.

Fisheries

Dennis Canavan (Falkirk West): To ask the Scottish Executive what conclusions it has reached as a result of its review of the law on freshwater fishing.

Allan Wilson: I await the Scottish Law Commission’s report on consolidation of the Scottish salmon and freshwater fisheries legislation.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease

David McLetchie (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will fully co-operate with and, if requested, give evidence to the temporary committee of the European Parliament set up to look into the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in 2001.

Ross Finnie: The Scottish Executive is committed to learning as many lessons as possible from the 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak and will co-operate with any requests made by the European Parliament, as we have done with the existing independent UK Inquiries.

Health

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether rhesus incompatibility is the only reason a baby would be given an intra-uterine transfusion.

Malcolm Chisholm: The majority of intra-uterine transfusions are performed as a result of rhesus incompatibility. However, figures provided in the answer to question S1W-19221 on 16 November 2001, include a number of others where the transfusion is identified, but the reason is not. An intra-uterine transfusion may also be indicated as being required, for example, where the mother’s anti-bodies may cause harm to her baby.

Housing

Iain Smith (North-East Fife) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment has been made of the cost implications for (a) individual landlords and (b) tenants of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation) Order 2000 (SSI 2000/177).

Ms Margaret Curran: When the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation) Order 2000 was laid in the Scottish Parliament, the Executive provided a Regulatory Impact Assessment setting out the estimated cost implications on groups affected by mandatory licensing, including landlords and tenants. This assessment was based on the best available information at that time. A copy can be obtained from the Scottish Parliament website.

Housing

Iain Smith (North-East Fife) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has begun monitoring the operation of the mandatory licensing of housing in multiple occupancy and when it will report on the operation of this monitoring.

Ms Margaret Curran: The Executive monitors local authorities’ implementation of mandatory licensing by means of an annual statistical return. Figures from the first returns, covering the period up to 31 March 2001, were published in the  Housing Statistical Bulletin last September. This is available on the Scottish Executive website.

  In addition, when the order was originally introduced in 2000, the Executive agreed that it would review mandatory licensing after its first year of operation. We have therefore commissioned independent researchers from the University of Glasgow and Heriot-Watt University/Edinburgh College of Art to carry out research on housing in multiple occupancy (HMO) licensing in conjunction with wider research on the private rented sector. As far as possible, we expect that the researchers will seek to establish the impact of HMO licensing to date, but the evidence may be rather limited and inconclusive after only one year of licensing, which has applied only to larger HMOs. Given the fairly extensive nature of this research, it will not be completed until the summer this year.

Housing

Iain Smith (North-East Fife) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has undertaken, or plans to undertake, any studies on the impact of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation) Order 2000 (SSI 2000/177) on the level of rents charged to tenants in houses in multiple occupation.

Ms Margaret Curran: When mandatory licensing was introduced in 2000, the Executive agreed that it would review the scheme after its first year of operation. We have therefore commissioned independent researchers from the University of Glasgow and Heriot-Watt University/Edinburgh College of Art to carry out research on housing in multiple occupancy (HMO) licensing in conjunction with wider research on the private rented sector. As far as possible, we expect that the researchers will seek to establish the impact of HMO licensing to date, but the evidence may be rather limited and inconclusive after only one year of licensing, which has applied only to larger HMOs.

  The research will include in depth interviews with a sample of landlords, interviews with tenants of HMOs and focus groups with tenants of institutional HMO landlords. Although these interviews and focus groups will have a qualitative focus and will not offer any statistical data, they may highlight whether there are concerns from tenants that mandatory licensing has caused an increase to their rents that is not commensurate with improvements in the property condition. That said, it will be very difficult to identify any direct link between licensing and rent increases, as the level of rent paid for a private tenancy is very much a matter for individual agreement between the landlord and tenant and in general will reflect the market rent for that area.

  We expect the research to be completed in the summer.

Lip-Reading

Andrew Wilson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it has provided in total for the creation of lip-reading classes to assist those with hearing difficulties in each of the last three years and what the reasons are for its position on the provision of such classes.

Malcolm Chisholm: Scottish Executive support for lip-reading skills is focussed on the training of tutors in lip-reading. Grants are made under section 9 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968. In 2000-01 a pump-priming grant of £20,000 was made to the Scottish Course to Train Tutors in Lip Reading. Grant for 2001-02 has been set at £30,000 and for 2002-03 it has been set at £35,000. These funds will contribute towards the training of up to 15 tutors each year.

Lip-Reading

Andrew Wilson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it has provided for the establishment of lip-reading classes in the Cumbernauld and Kilsyth constituency area to assist those with hearing difficulties in each of the last three years and what the reasons are for its position on the provision of such classes in this area.

Malcolm Chisholm: Scottish Executive support for lip-reading skills is focussed on the training of tutors in lip-reading, rather than the support of classes in particular areas of the country. Grants are made under section 9 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968. In 2000-01 a grant of £20,000 was made to the Scottish Course to Train Tutors in Lip Reading. Grant for 2001-02 has been set at £30,000 and for 2002-03 it has been set at £35,000. These funds will contribute towards the training of up to 15 tutors each year.

Lip-Reading

Andrew Wilson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it has provided for the establishment of lip-reading classes in the Motherwell and Wishaw constituency area to assist those with hearing difficulties in each of the last three years and what the reasons are for its position on the provision of such classes in this area.

Malcolm Chisholm: Scottish Executive support for lip-reading skills is focussed on the training of tutors in lip-reading, rather than the support of classes in particular areas of the country. Grants are made under section 9 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968. In 2000-01 a pump-priming grant of £20,000 was made to the Scottish Course to Train Tutors in Lip Reading. Grant for 2001-02 has been set at £30,000 and for 2002-03 it has been set at £35,000. These funds will contribute towards the training of up to 15 tutors each year.

Lip-Reading

Andrew Wilson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many lip-reading tutors were employed in the Cumbernauld and Kilsyth constituency area to assist those with hearing difficulties in each of the last three years and what the reasons are for the position on the employment of such tutors in this area.

Andrew Wilson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many lip-reading tutors were employed in the Motherwell and Wishaw constituency area to assist those with hearing difficulties in each of the last three years and what the reasons are for the position on the employment of such tutors in this area.

Malcolm Chisholm: The information requested is not held centrally.

Local Government Finance

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive on what basis extended borrowing was approved for the Western Isles Council following the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International.

Peter Peacock: Western Isles Islands Council lost £23 million following the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. Since there was no immediate prospect of recovering the money and no chance of continuing to be in a position to discharge its statutory obligations without revenue borrowing, the council wrote to the Secretary of State in August 1991 requesting special borrowing consent to replace the £23 million.

  Exceptionally, on account of the scale of the loss in relation to the council’s total financial resources, the Secretary of State granted the council consent to borrow in terms of paragraph 1(2) of schedule 3 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1975 to make good the shortfall and maintain its day-to-day cash flow requirements during the remainder of 1991-92. Since the loss was consequent on ultra vires investment activity, the terms of the consent specified that the interest and repayment costs of the borrowing must be met entirely by the council without any grant aid or other financial assistance from the Government.

Local Government Finance

Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what formula it uses to distribute financial support to local authorities and whether it has considered using a formula based on needs and deprivation similar to the Arbuthnott scheme applied to health expenditure.

Mr Andy Kerr: The local government revenue grant is already distributed by a needs based system that takes account of the impact of deprivation on the costs of service delivery. There are 13 assessments within the formula - mainly those for social work and education – that include deprivation adjustments. In addition, a number of important social work assessments are influenced by health indicators which reflect deprivation. The Scottish Executive and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities together carried out a thorough review of the account taken of deprivation in the local government finance system last year. As a result we have redistributed an additional £16 million to help councils tackle the effects of deprivation in schools. We have also made available through the Better Neighbourhoods Services Fund an additional £90 million to help improve services within the most deprived neighbourhoods.

Ministerial Meetings

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many official engagements the First Minister has carried out in the north east Scotland parliamentary region since his appointment and whether it will detail these engagements.

Mr Jack McConnell: I held a meeting with the Leader of Aberdeen City Council when I visited Aberdeen on 26 January 2002. I will be attending Parliament when it sits in Aberdeen in May and intend to carry out a number of official engagements in and around the region at that time.

Non-Departmental Public Bodies

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what guidelines exist with regard to severance payments for senior members of staff of non-departmental public bodies.

Michael Russell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what guidelines exist with regard to staff who are deemed to be redundant after restructuring exercises in non-departmental public bodies.

Mr Andy Kerr: Guidance on personnel management practices is included in the current central Government guide for departments on non-departmental public bodies.

Pensioners

Tommy Sheridan (Glasgow) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual cost would be of providing (a) free bus travel, (b) free rail travel and (c) free domestic fuel for pensioners throughout Scotland.

Lewis Macdonald: The information on bus and rail travel is not available in the form requested. The Scottish Executive Concessionary Fares Study Report (November 2000) indicated that providing free off-peak bus and rail travel across Scotland for pensioners and disabled people would cost in the region of £96 million per annum. That figure did not take account of potentially very large additional operating costs. The report is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 12085). The information required to estimate the cost of providing free domestic fuel for all Scottish pensioners is not held centrally.

Rail Freight

Colin Campbell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-21002 by Lewis MacDonald on 3 January 2002, whether it has had discussions with Her Majesty’s Government concerning the restriction of rail freight through the Channel Tunnel that began on 7 November 2001 and its impact on Scotland and, if so, on what date these discussions took place, who took part and what the outcome was.

Lewis Macdonald: Rail freight generally is a reserved matter, as are European railway services. The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues, including freight services through the Channel Tunnel. Contact on this issue has continued throughout the period in question, including most recently a letter earlier this month to George Foulkes, Minister of State at the Scotland Office, in which I reiterated our concern to see this matter resolved.

  It is not usual to provide details of discussions between officials and third parties, as the disclosure of this information would harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion. This policy is supported by the Code of Practice on Access to Scottish Executive Information, which provides that information should be released except where disclosure would not be in the public interest, as specified in Part II of the Code.

Road Signs

Mr John Home Robertson (East Lothian) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will erect a stop sign in order to control traffic joining the A1 trunk road from Torness Power Station.

Lewis Macdonald: Stop signs and markings are only considered where visibility at a junction is severely restricted. The Scottish Executive has no plans to erect a sign at this location, as it does not satisfy this requirement. An Accident Investigation and Prevention study carried out at the A1/Torness Power Station junction in 2001 recommended measures to improve safety and these have now been implemented.

Roads

Mr Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration was given to the contract with Autolink Concessionaires Ltd as a model contract when drawing up the trunk roads maintenance contracts with BEAR Scotland Ltd and Amey Highways Ltd.

Lewis Macdonald: The Scottish Executive considered a number of contracts including the M6 DBFO contract as well as the previous term management and maintenance contracts when drawing up the new term management and maintenance contracts for the trunk road network.

Roads

Mr Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how it ensures consistency in standards between (a) BEAR Scotland Ltd, (b) Amey Highways Ltd and (c) Autolink Concessionaires Ltd.

Lewis Macdonald: The Operating Company contracts and the M6 DBFO contract each have similar service standards specified for the management and maintenance of the network. The Performance Audit Group and Scott Wilson Scotland Limited monitor the performance of the Operating Companies and Autolink respectively against the requirements of each contract. Each of these supervision commissions stands to be re-awarded later this year and a common competition is now being promoted to appoint a single organisation to oversee all of the contracts.

Roads

Mr John Home Robertson (East Lothian) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will direct Amey Highways Ltd to pay East Lothian Council for gritting work undertaken by the council on Pencraig Hill on 30 December 2001.

Lewis Macdonald: East Lothian Council has no responsibility to carry out winter maintenance on trunk roads, and the Scottish Executive is not aware of any such work undertaken by the council on 30 December 2001.

Roads

Scott Barrie (Dunfermline West) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many objections have been lodged to the proposed Eastern Relief Road at Kincardine.

Lewis Macdonald: Eight objections were lodged to the draft orders for the proposed Eastern Link Road at Kincardine, of which two have been subsequently withdrawn.

Water Authorities

Mr Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what reports the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) has received from the North of Scotland Water Authority (NoSWA) and others on the accidental discharge of aluminium sulphate into the water treatment plant at Tomich by NoSWA on 5 February 2002 and what action SEPA plans to take as a result.

Ross Finnie: There was a treatment failure at North of Scotland Water Authority’s Newmore water treatment works on 5 February. This resulted in an overflow from the wash water recovery tanks into the local watercourse. Wash water is liable to contain aluminium sulphate, which forms part of the treatment process. The water authority immediately took remedial action to prevent any further discharge and reported the incident to the Dingwall office of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). Any follow up actions by SEPA will be a matter for them. However, they have received no reports of any adverse impact arising out of this incident.

  The incident was also notified to the Water Services Unit at the Scottish Executive in accordance with agreed procedures.